One of the take-aways from Many Gods West is the strong reminder that poetry is one of the gifts I’m supposed to be sharing with the world. To that end, and because I’ve been getting poked by the Gods I know as “Greek” lately (but who each seem to be insisting on proving to me that They come from somewhere not-Greek, really, for some reason…), here I am posting to the open public for the first time a poem which started 17ish years ago, and was finished 3ish years ago, and which will, someday, have a better tune than the one currently in my head for it.

Pandora

I don’t want to be Pandora
I’m not here to punish you
I don’t want to make the world see
All the things the dark can do

But if you can’t reach beyond your fears
Then I can’t show you what is real
You need to learn to see the difference
Between who I am and how you feel

And you don’t know
And they don’t care
And I’m alone again…

I don’t want to be Cassandra
It’s hard enough when you believe
The twisted lines laid out before you
Can stretch beyond what you perceive

But you can’t hear the spirits singing
And I can’t make you change your mind
Now even truth won’t set you free
If you can’t leave your doubts behind

But you don’t see
And They don’t show
So I’m alone again…

I don’t want to be Medea
It hurts me more to make you pay
It’s not that you can’t earn my ire
It’s just that I’m not wired that way

But you don’t understand what love is
And I can’t open up your heart
If this is how you need to treat me
I guess the end is where to start

And you won’t try
And I can’t lie
So we’re alone again…

(C) Ember Cooke, 2012

Needless to say, this is not a poem about my current headspace, nor my current relationships. It was, when it first bubbled up in my consciousness, about a person I knew who needed very much to trust the gods and humans with whom they were in relationship, but couldn’t bring themselves to do so.

–Ember–